The Rest Of The Meet: Alysia Montano, Jenny Simpson and Caster Semenya Disappoint

Elsewhere, we've already covered the men's steeple, the men's 800 and men's 1,500 at Friday's 2012 Herculis Diamond League track and field meet. Here we cover all of the other events.

Women's 800: Alysia Montano & Caster Semenya Disappoint

The women's 800 was disappointing for 'big names' of Caster Semenya and Alysia Montano as both had sub-pefromances. Semenya, the 2009 world champ and 2011 silver medallist Caster Semenya, who hadsaid recently that her goals are simple - to win Olympic gold and set the world record in the process - was awful from start to finish and finish. She was next to last at 200, last at 400 and next to last at the finish in 2:01.67. In our minds, her medal chances are gone.

Montano, who came into this race as the favorite based on 2012 performances, was better but she looked far from being like someone who was fourth at world's last year or someone who ran 1:57.37 back at the Pre Classic on June 1st as she was third in 1:59.05.

The race was won easily by Russia's Yelena Kofanova, who ran 1:57.77 in the Trials of the Russian Champs before finishing 4th in the final, in 1:58.41.

The Race
The race was rabbited well by 31-year-old Yuliya Krevsun of the Ukraine. Krevsun was 4th at the 2009 Worlds. She took the field through 500 after going through 400 in 56.95. When she stepped off, Montano was in the lead with Kofanova just behind her. They would occupy the top two spots until the final 80. Montano went through 600 in 1:28.21 and had the lead until about 115 meters remained when she inexplicably let Kofanova pass her on the inside. In the end, it wouldn't have mattered as
Montano had little during the final 100 as Kofanova pulled away to win easily. Montano only covered her final 200 in 30.84.

2012 US Olympic Trials 4th placer Molly Beckwith, who got a much-deserved victory in London last week, had another credible performance and finished 4th in 1:59.37.

The runner-up in our eyes is someone worth noting. 19-year old African champ Francine Niyonsaba of Burundi looked like a terribly inexperienced athlete as she made about three moves on the final lap but it didn't matter as she still had enough gas in the tank to get second in 1:58.68

QT #1: Some LetsRun.com visitor's wrote us and asked why we didn't recently give Ajee Wilson a "black page" when she won world junior gold in 2:00.91. The answer is two-fold. 1) We don't give out black pages lightly and only for elite performances and normally a junior performances isn't elite. 2) Wilson't not even the best junior in the world as Niyonsaba, who skipped world juniors, is clearly way ahead of her. To win the African champs, Niyonsaba had to beat the Kenyan Trials champ Eunice Sum.

QT #2: Semenya is done but we're not writing off Montano quite yet as this was only the third 800 of the year for Montano. She ran at Pre, at the Trials and here. Normally 800 runners need more sharpening than that.

QT #3: Two-time 1,500 world champ Maryam Jamal who won the 1,500 in London last week easily over the American Olympians Shannon Rowbury, Morgan Uceny and Jenny Simpson was in the race and didn't look good and was never competitive.Not a good sign for US fans.

This was a sit and kick race that came down to the last lap - up until which everyone was still with the lead pack. In the end, the race ended up being a battle between the 4th and 5th placers from the Kenyan Trials in Sylvia Kibet and Mercy Cherono with Cherono winning in 8:38.51 to Kibet's
8:39.14 after a last lap of 60.40 leader to leader.

17-year-old Buze Diriba, the Ethiopian who won the World Junior 5,000 last week, ended up third in 8:39.65 just ahead of 2012 US Olympian Shannon Rowbury who closed pretty well (61 mid) to finish 4th in 8:39.83.

American 1,500 runner Gabrielle Anderson, who just got the "A" standard in the 1,500 for next year on Tuesday by running 4:04.74, was eighth in 8:43.52 ahead of two 2012 US Olympians.

US Olympic Trials 5,000 champion Julie Culley was 10th in 8:45.57 which actually is a PB for her, but to be truthful the real story from this race was that reigning world 1,500 champion Jenny Simpson was horrible on the last lap and finished 11th in 8:48.72. Simpson was in a perfect position in about third with 450 to go and then round herself in a horrible position at the bell, but it didnt' matter as she had nothing on the last lap as we think she ran over 70 on it.

QT #1: What's a good 3,000 time? Well, a 15:00 is equal to roughly 8:38 for 3,000. So the 8:39 and pretty good kick for Rowbury wasn't too bad for her.

QT #2: The scary thing for US Fans is if they remind themselves that while as bad as Simpson looked today, she was the top America in the 1,500 in London last week. Imagine, if we told you at the start of the year that the US, which started the year with the world #1 in Morgan Uceny and reigning world champion inSimpson, would have to get lucky to get a medal of any color in London. You wouldn't have believed us.

The 'A' team of Kimmons, Gatlin, Gay and Bailey ran a stellar 37.61 despite having some less than perfect hand-offs to get the win. On the second to third exchange between Gatlin and Gay, Gatlin ran right up on Gay and had to slow down but that problem is better than what happened on the anchor when Bailey left early and had to slow up.

QT #1: 37.61 is good. It's the same time the US ran in 2000 to win gold in Sydney and 12th fastest time in history. In London, US fans should hope the team does exactly what they did here and then hope Jamaica's drops the baton as the US isn't going to beat Jamaica without help.

QT #2: At world's last year, 37.04 won gold, 38.20 won silver and 38.49 won bronze.

QT #1: Last year, 41.56 won gold at worlds, 41.70 got silver and 42.51 got the bronze. Hey, the 'B' can medal. They should let countries enter more than one team.

Rank

Relay

Nation

Result

Reaction time

1

USA BLUE

USA

42.24

0.188

2

FRANCE

FRA

43.51

0.178

NETHERLANDS

NED

DNF

0.231

USA RED

USA

DNF

0.166

Men's 110 Hurdles: Aries Merritt Runs 12.93 Yet Again!!!

Aries Merritt won again and he ran what he's now run for 3 straight meets - 12.93. Mark Block's associateJason Richardson was second in 13.07.

QT #1: To run 12.93 three straight times is amazing. Only 14 times in history counting duplicate performances has a human ever run faster than 12.93 and Merritt's run 12.93 three times in a row. Only 23 times in history has someone run 12.93 or faster.

The winning time of 44.75 wasn't particularly impressive but the win was. US fans likel had a coronary when Merritt dropped out of the race after 200 meters. He said afterwards he wasn't hurt - he just felt a cramp.

QT #1: Many of you are probably asking, how can 44.74 win the race? Remember 44.90 got the bronze last year.

Beijing Olympic champ Irving Saladino is back. In only his second meet of the year, he was much better and got the win over 2011 silver medallist Mitchell Watt of Australia.

The #4 man on the world list is NCAA and US Olympic Trials champ, Marquise Goodman, was sixth and 2008 silver medallist Godfrey Mokoena was last. 2012 European champ Sebastian Bayer, who is #3 in the world this year, was 5th.

Germany's Silke Spiegelburg got a big PR and even bigger victory as she won at 4.82m (pr was 4.75) and beat the tw-time reigning Olympic champ Yelena Isinbayeva who no-heighted and the reigning world champ Fabiana Murer who went only 4.54.

After only finishing 4th at the US Trials (but making the team), world champ Jesse Williams returned to form and got the win over a field that included the three medallists from last year in Williams, Dmitrik and Barry.